I’ve been in the dive industry for only about 10 years which is a comparatively very small amount of time. There’s a lot of people who’ve been in the industry a lot longer who would tell you that fish stocks have dwindled, there’s a huge issue with overfishing and at this point there’s no longer any such thing as sustainable fishing anywhere in the world.
Have I really noticed in the last 10 years that there’s a real issue? I don’t think I really have. I’ve been in Puerto Galera for 3 years and in that time I have not noticed a change, in fact I have friends who’ve been here over a decade who say the diving is getting better year on year – the reef is getting healthier, which may be because it has better protection now.
Before tourism, Puerto Galera was a fishing village but now people are realising the economic potential of the marine life; it’s being protected much better. Scuba diving is definitely helping communities realise that for example a kilo of shark is worth about 200 pesos but over it’s life time that shark can be worth thousands of pesos as a tourist attraction.